| Planetfall 2: Floyd's Next Thing (cancelled) | Infocom / Activision | 1995 | |
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This is a cancelled off-beat comedy sci-fi sequel to Infocom's classic text adventure. It was to be a CD-Rom title that featured a stellar production of superbly rendederd 3-D worlds and a cast of fifteen Hollywood actors. With Steve Meretzky (designer of the original Planetfall) as the major force behind this product, a refined story line by Star Trek: The Next Generation screenwriters, and Floyd the charismatic robot as your quirky guide. A non - interactive demo of Planetfall 2 was included in the compilation CD Activision Power Hits: BattleTech. A very early prototype that's barely playable exists, though it does provide an interesting look at how the game would have played with a realtime 3D engine. The prototype does introduce a puzzle and features voice acting as well as a pretty cool soundtrack tune. Judging by the puzzle, you were able to give orders to your robot companions similarly to how Infocom's classic text adventures worked. The prototype can be difficult to execute - you can run this game on a pre-made Windows 95 VMWare machine with specific display drivers. The game has to be run in full-screen as otherwise graphics look completely corrupt in window mode. When you launch the game, you are given the option to load one of three .SCP files (a seemingly proprietary level format), although only PAXTONRM.SCP works correctly; the rest will crash the loader. VMWare is problematic for playing this prototype because it doesn't give you the option to limit the CPU cycles. It's recommended using a tool like CPU Killer compatible with Windows 95, or give Win95 on DOSBox a shot. Interestingly, this ISO image has loads of assets in easily readable BMP format, many of which aren't seen in the prototype. A sad coda to Infocom's enduring legacy; we can only imagine what the final game would have been like. | ||
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